Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel has reportedly used a “strong agent” to lighten his skin.

Rollingout.com is reporting Kartel has said “this is my new image,” referring to his new lighter skin tone. “You can expect the unexpected. I feel comfortable with black people lightening their skin. They want a different look. It’s tantamount to white people getting a sun tan.”

Blogger Amir Shaw says Kartel’s choice to lighten his skin stems from a “deeply rooted self-hatred that has permeated the black community for hundreds of years.”

Full Article... (http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/01/jamaican_dancehall_star_vybz_kartel_bleached_his_skin.html)

Vybz Kartel Bleaches Skin, Compares Change to a 'Sun Tan'

By Georgette ClineJanuary 21, 2011

Reggae artist Vybz Kartel is causing quite an uproar with fans since he appeared in his native Jamaica showcasing a drastically lighter skin color.

The 'Ramping Shop' creator experienced a backlash from loyal supporters after rumors surfaced that the dancehall performer's physical change was a result of using cake soap, a kind of soap used throughout the West Indies to wash white clothes.

"This is my new image," he admits. "You can expect the unexpected. I feel comfortable with black people lightening their skin. They want a different look. It's tantamount to white people getting a sun tan."

Full Article... (http://www.theboombox.com/2011/01/21/vybz-kartel-bleaches-skin-compares-change-to-a-sun-tan/)

Q: What's the difference between Vybz Kartel's face, and a steaming pile of crap?A: I wouldn't want to stomp repeatedly on a steaming pile of crap.This grotesque joke called "Vybz Kartel" isn't even remotely funny any more, and neither are his equally pathetic sidekicks like Lisa "proud a me bleaching" Hype...The mighty Queen Ifrica kicks the slimy little nonce a new anus below:Queen Ifrica - No Bwoy (New 2009 Kartel Diss) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJZscYzc6uc#normal)

And his former mentor unequivocally cuts off all ties below... those of a tender age and/or sensitive disposition should be warned that the Warlord uses language that is sometimes not exactly "diplomatic"...BOUNTY KILLER - CHATTER BOX (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikBj6sk-ik#normal)Bounty Killa Bullet Him (Vybz Kartel Diss) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz7RYpoEYzQ&feature=related#normal)

I have commented on this issue quite often over the years, so I would just add a short comment in regards to some of the extreme responses to Vybz Kartel’s bleaching that I have read and heard so far.

Vybz Kartel, like many others who bleach their skin, is ignorant and stupid. But I would not go so far as to endorse Whites and ‘Lights’ being extremely harsh or insulting towards him because of this.

If people are not in the position to constantly feel unworthy and ugly because of their looks and skin color, then they cannot empathize with what makes so many non-Whites alter their physical appearance in the hope of being considered more attractive, worthy and getting ‘better’ economic opportunities (economic opportunities are not better if you have to debase yourself for them).

Even when dark-skinned Africans make money they cannot escape the hatred of their phenotype. Many are continually looking for ways to appear, at the very least, mixed-race.

Bleaching skin is but one manifestation of this hatred. Hair weaving and all manners of cosmetic surgeries are also manifestations of this hatred.

Many people of all races are reflecting strong dislike for their looks in different ways. The booming cosmetic surgery industry is evidence of this.

I wonder how many of those who are extremely critical of Kartel have extensions and cosmetic surgeries or are attracted to people who have them? How many of them, in their usual superficial way, actually find the naturally looking dark-skinned Black man and woman attractive?

Condemn the actions but be mindful that for many dark-skinned people life remains extremely unfair notwithstanding the fact that victims are often complicit in their victimization.

Ayinde, point taken. Perhaps it was not appropriate for me to be the one to comment on this at all. But just to be clear, I don't actually desire to stomp on Vybz Kartel's or anyone else's face, nor do I endorse "bulleting" him and I'm pretty sure Bounty Killer doesn't mean it literally, he is Bounty Killer, killing other m.c.s is what he does. I have not and could not walk in Vybz Kartel's shoes, as you rightly point out, so maybe shouldn't sit in judgment, but I have to say that for a while now I personally have thought he was a rather sinister influence in dancehall music. Dancehall music has traditionally reflected the harsh environment that much of it comes from, but many artists at least try to balance the "positive" with the "negative" in their music. It seems that Kartel has just been promoting all the most negative things for a while now and not many if any of the positive. He basically endorses sex with underage girls in "Virginity" and then had the cheek to diss Queen Ifrica for making the song linked above responding to it. So this skin-bleaching-and-proud-of-it thing is one of a whole range of negative things he promotes, in my opinion.

All of a sudden the problem of skin bleaching is in the spotlight and we have top DJ Vybz Kartel to thank for it. As I mentioned in an earlier post my favourite Christmas present was a pack of his infamous ‘cake soap’ I received, complete with personal autograph. VK as we’ll call him for short, has recently attracted attention with his complexion suddenly appearing several shades lighter than it used to be, the better he says, to show off his numerous tattoos. The melanin reduction is attributed to the said cake soap which is normally used to whiten clothes in the wash.

It just goes to show you how influential popular music is; young Ebony Patterson has been highlighting the skin bleaching problem here for years with her series of innovative artworks but hardly anyone outside the artworld paid much attention. Then along comes VK, the Darth Vader of Jamaican music (except that he doesn’t want to be dark any longer), with his cake soap and no one can talk of anything else.

Jamaica’s voluble moral majority has rushed to condemn VK claiming that he is encouraging impressionable youngsters to imitate him. What has upset many is that the DJ is unrepentant and even playful about lightening his skin colour, refusing to take the matter seriously and countering that it’s no different from white people wanting to tan themselves. Numerous musicians have rushed forth with anti-bleaching, love-my black-skin-songs but in a way all these knee-jerk responses are just as superficial as the act of bleaching itself, which only changes what is visible without attacking the underlying structural problems that make people bleach in the first place. Historian Elsa Goveia put her finger on it several decades ago when she said the structuring principle of Caribbean societies is “the belief that the blacker you are the more inferior you are and the whiter you are the more superior you are.”

When we don't know or understand beauty, attraction, at the least to, culturally question these constructs, problems relating appearance persist.

As well, it is not productive to shout 'self hatred', 'disgrace to God' or any condescending label however seemingly appropriate for good reason.

These labels do not invoke introspection conducive to change.Instead rebellion, as the accused 'bleacher' sees this as a personal attackmaking it harder for him/herself to see their own role towards the slaughter of their own personal identity-appearance...

So is it a matter of someone hating themselves when they bleach dark skinor someone going about removing those unattractive sentiments, from themselves, the wrong way????

A physical look, is not just a physical property but be it a 'look' as in 'light skin',it is actually a perception to associate or reject.

So I in the general sense, would encourage the culture that 'burn fyah pona bleacher',instead to focus youths into a culture of checking the content of social perception as it relates to looks. That entails the hstory, circumstance, endurance of a people 'and their skin'. From there one can truly assess themselves of beauty, attraction, etc.

For truly the Hero is celebrated, admired, over coming 'odds' to be alive for the happy ending.Surely the dark skin is even more beautiful having endured to date in life's motion picture!

As for Vybz Kartel... ...and I quote Vybz Kartel from an interview:

"Until the color of a man skin is as significant as the color of his eyes..."

...then he laughs at the end.

He knows what he's doing, obviously expected the back-lash (according to him in one of his latest songs)

It is very easy to be disgusted at Vybz Kartel for his careless and shallow personal decision to bleach his face and body. He endorses this destruction of melanin by singing lyrics like "d gyal dem love off me bleach out face" and he cites Michael Jackson as his inspiration.....?huh?....However after careful thought, and a hardcore reality check i realise to my dismay that even my own concept of beauty is out of sync with my "africaness". i havent gone as far as Kartel to destroy my skin, but when i think of beautiful black women no dark skinned ones come to mind. this is indeed a personal wake up call for me, particularly because i have blamed Vybz Kartel for disseminating his "bleaching is the way" ideas to youth all over the Caribbean. How can i judge him? when i myself refuse to wear my hair natural and make-up is an everyday process that i go through with joy. i seek, as a young black woman to be as talented and insightful as women like maya angelou and as successful as oprah winfrey, however can i look like tyra banks while doing so?....its crazy what we perceive as beautiful and ideas and opinions of beauty differ from person to person. but what i would like everyone to do...is be true to themselves a bit and look at who you choose to date, marry and become friends with...see if there is a trend in what they look like...dark skinned, light skinned...."natural"... what race?

"Until the colour of a man skin..." What an insult to the meaning of that speech.Kartel is just calling his own judgement down on himself so I won't bother to add any more.

...yet seems as though is our jujament?...

question...

why do people think that, one individual, Kartel, who does an act admittedly for his own satisfaction, bleaching,is more influencial,than countless individuals, from I-wayne to Natural Blacks?????why this Kartel is so influencial?

I think what is not considered especially by those away from the so called 'ghettos'/'garrisons' of Jamaica from which Kartel's music is inspired. Is that the 'Rastaman', 'the Shotta', 'the Matie', 'the Hot Gal' and so on live side by side!

It's easy for youth to see little or no significant differencebetween a 'Bleacha' and a 'Rastaman' be it they both suffer/struggle within the same circumstance. Namely poverty, violence, sexual illness and so on. No one is better than anyone in such a place, which makes the argument of morality, virtue, hard defined and difficult and seemingly twisted, viewing this from the outside. For example, Munga proclaiming to be the "Gangsta Ras".

So it doesn't suprise me if someone from such an environment takes"His Majesty's" quote out of an apparent context. Perhaps it isn't out of context in the overall consideration?

... i seek, as a young black woman to be as talented and insightful as women like maya angelou and as successful as oprah winfrey, however can i look like tyra banks while doing so?....its crazy what we perceive as beautiful and ideas and opinions of beauty differ from person to person. but what i would like everyone to do...is be true to themselves a bit and look at who you choose to date, marry and become friends with...

BLESS UP!!!!...hardly people admit to 'checking themselves'. Throwing themselves in the 'line of fire', let alone with a Vybz Kartel !I had to check myself as well growing up. Believing that the attention my brothers got, especially from girls, was because they were light skin and I was the 'dark one'.I had to know what is beauty or good looks! What is it?

The human eyes no matter the person will see you the way you actually appear!So if beauty as you say differs from person to person,then beauty has nothing to do with how you look.Because several persons will look on you and see different things such as,"she's hot" or "average", "ugly" and so on.

So you, Risy, looking in the mirror is actually seeing nothing wrong,absolutely fine, provided your healthy and so on.

The problems come in or is seen,because we know that the society that we'd like to engage with on some level,whether relationship wise, work related and so on,is not willing to engage with anyone,let alone someone who looks like you as you are. We know this or have some impression of this.

We never ask WHY, society is unwilling to engage with anyone,who could be the next Maya Angelou, Tyra or Winfrey.Instead we modify our appearance, blindly,to look like what we think society will accept or engage.

So to think its because Kartel hates himself why he bleaches,or for you to be mad at yourself for modifying your appearanceis not the case nor the problem. (anyone can correct I if thas wrong)

The problem is the unwillingness to actually KNOWwho were looking at. Essentially knowing what 'beauty is"!

...yes, all ones should be vigilant in whom they choose to date, marry and so on...checking themselves of course..

Diyouth - their own role towards the slaughter of their own personal identity-appearance...

I agree with checking oneself, Kartel's case is extreme, but how many people unknowingly use bleaching products in their moisturizer, not just face but their entire body?

Last year I go for a bleaching cream at a popular cosmetic chain. I ask the fair skinned attendant responsible for skin products to recommend something for me. She recommends a US$3 product. The fact that it was called 'Clarant B' was an instant turn off. Further, it said dark spot correcting cream...or better read 'dark skinned correcting cream' (for you know ppl start off intending to put it on that one pimple/button mark but end up slabbering it everywhere including neck, hands etc.) was a get-me-outta-here signal and I just put it back down on the counter and asked to be shown some other product.

Well after reading the article below, I am sure I dont even have to go back to the store to confirm the Clarant crap has some of the toxic chemicals, am I mean, 'ingredients' in it. In the end I ended up buying a US$8 mosturizer, ha I was suprised upon opening it had a tint (brown colour) already added (which I dont particularly care for either for I bought one once and the colour brown was too light for my skin colour, in effect a modified idea of the skin lightening thing)...But my point here in mentioning the cost is, how many young girls, 16 year olds still defining and working through what is beautiful or looking to be accepted as beautiful, will be able to pass up a 3 dollar cream for an 8 dollar one? And then when you are older and can afford the 8 dollar one, what stops you from just graduating into the full blown bleaching cream cycle? Cosmetic stores know the market is there, any time I see an add of Beyonce's face I am reminded of this more than I could remember what brand she is advertising for.

Anyway, happy reading....

The black skin colour is healthy and very beautiful, do not bleach it ugly to skin cancer

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

On skin cancer awareness DR HASSAN AZADEH Senior Lecturer at the University of The Gambia and Senior Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology in continuation of his regular health article in the National Newspapers focus this week on the danger of skin bleaching in Gambian women and developing deathly skin cancer.

Many women in The Gambia now are bleaching their skin. Why do they want do that? Is fairer skin really more appealing than darker skin?

DR AZADEH is skin bleaching harmful

To start with, variety is the spice of our life, such as variety in food, clothes, hairstyles, etc. Variety also abounds in nature. That is why all people on Earth belong to different types of skin colours, from white to yellow and to black. Our living environment accounts for the different skin colours we have. For example, in cold climatic regions such as Europe, inhabitants tend to have a lighter complex due to the cold weather, whereas in Africa, darker skin is better suited in the hot and humid climate.

Actually many beauticians and doctors advise us that by eating healthily, exercising and using body cream rich in Vitamin E, Aloe Vera and Collagen Elastin will produce more fascinating effects than applying mere bleaching creams.

All skin bleaching products contain one of the two active ingredients -- hydroquinone and mercury.

1. Hydroquinone lightens the colour of the skin areas to which it is applied by killing off the melanin-making cells - the melanolyte. It is also the active ingredient in 'fade-off' creams for freckles, age spots, etc.

Historical background: Hydroquinone was first use in the thirties. Some of the African-American employees found that spots of discolouration appeared on their skin.

The terms skin whitening, skin lightening, and skin bleaching covers a variety of cosmetic methods used in an attempt to whiten or lighten the skin.

Skin lightening or whitening is extremely controversial topic as it is closely intertwined with the detrimental effects on health, identity, self-image, racia supremacy and colonial mentality.

There is evidence to prove that most types of skin-whitening products use active ingredients (such as mercurous chloride) and hydroquinone which are certainly extremely harmful andcaused skin cancer. Hydroquinone has now been banned in Europe and in many other countries can only be prescribed by a doctor for certain skin conditions.

In Asian and African countries including The Gambia, banned chemicals are still being used in skin lightening creams and can buy them in every corner in this country and even at Banjul and Serekunda Marked as cheap as D15.

Skin lightening/ bleaching is now a big deal in the Gambian society. It is such a big deal that the Medical professionals see it important to embrace a campaign geared at its discouragement in The Gambia. The practice is very serious because it addresses common concerns about the yearning for beauty.

With the association with beauty, skin bleaching has become extremely popular. Every human have a desire to feel and be perceived as beautiful, and as such my concerns as medical professional about how to discourage people from it.

There is another article that health concerns weren't enough to discourage bleachers in another Gambian Newspaper not long time ago.

It seems like an uphill battle to me–trying to convince the women in my every day's clinic to stop destroying their beautiful black skin when the colour cards are staked up against them.

The root cause of contemporary skin bleaching practices–stigma and discrimination against of African descent–must be addressed if we are to ward off a skin cancer epidemic in The Gambia.

Skin cancer is reported as one of the major causes of death amongst bleachers and therefore it is just a matter of time before we have a full blown epidemic on our hands. We must therefore strive to change behaviour by addressing physical, mental, and symbolic remnants of light-skinned superiority and dark-skinned inferiority which contributes to low self-esteem and confidence.

The solution to the problem lies in need to examine what is being done nationally to increase and inspire confidence about the beauty of the black skin and denounce the age old belief/ saying, "Nutten Black nuh Good !"

Skin-lightening creams are heavily promoted by many dermatologists and skin care experts to even out cosmetic conditions like vitiligo, liver spots, and other superficial blemishes.

The problem with these creams is that many of them contain a substance called hydroquinone, which a variety of studies have linked to:

“I’m my own man, and as such I do my own thing. When black women stop straightening their hair and wearing wigs and weaves, when white women stop getting lip and butt injections and implants, when bald men stop getting hair transplants, and when people stop getting nose jobs and cosmetic surgery then I’ll stop using the ‘cakesoap’ and we’ll all live naturally ever after. Until then F**k you all.”

. I have not and could not walk in Vybz Kartel's shoes, as you rightly point out, so maybe shouldn't sit in judgment, but I have to say that for a while now I personally have thought he was a rather sinister influence in dancehall music. .. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

there is another trend happening, especially among afrikans from the continent. when you are a light skinned afrikan you are almost all the time accused of bleaching regardless you happen to be that way naturally. i cannot hide because i take this Afrikan Liberation business very serious and it's time we face and confront our own family, associates and the entire world about that. those who really want to participate in this struggle cannot hide like hypocrites. that's why i'm not afraid to show my image anymore, but i get a lot of criticism..i'm the first person to say skin color is a big problem among Afrikans and we must embrace our natural color and 'afrikan' features and be proud of who we are! we need to regain our sanity as Afrikans in the way of honoring our wise Ancestral culture and all this nonesense and paranoia about skin color will stop. check my video out: 100% Afrikan, pure, with kinky hair and light skin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALQzbUkW0K8#normal)http://www.mwanabakoko.com/ (http://www.mwanabakoko.com/)

“There is another trend happening, especially among afrikans from the continent. when you are a light skinned afrikan you are almost all the time accused of bleaching regardless you happen to be that way naturally.”

Although you state that issues surrounding skin color is a “big problem among Afrikans” you seem to be defensive. Accusations of bleaching would be commonplace especially when it is so widespread on the continent although some Africans are naturally of lighter shades and others are mixed race. These articles help in demonstrating the extent of the problem:

Especially when annexed to traits that seem to demonstrate a likeness for whiteness such as wearing heavy Euro/Western - styled make-up, certain hairstyles (be it straitened hair, weaves or locks for long hair appeal), or dressing in particular fashions, one can assume that those people may be bleaching their skin as well, even if they are naturally lighter in complexion.

Most of the indigenous Africans I have seen from the continent who have naturally lighter complexions have very kinky hair. And most others who I have seen with semi-straight/curly/wavy hair appear to be either mixed race or have had cosmetic alterations to their looks. If people decide to embrace all aspects of them, then that is up to them. For most light-skinned people that also means embracing their whiteness. One cannot pretend that accusations of skin- bleaching are without merit.

I find this statement odd. “…we need to regain our sanity as Afrikans in the way of honoring our wise Ancestral culture and all this nonesense and paranoia about skin color will stop.”

Fair enough comment, Camille, but re "certain hairstyles... [including] locks for long hair appeal"... surely locks are the most natural hairstyle for African people (or indeed for anyone); talking about natural locks, not manicured or fake ones.

diyouth...as i see it, most people/leaders are disappointing in some way, particularly the popular ones. i know many people who rant about skin bleaching cream and how wrong it is, for whatever reason (well thought out or not - e.g. sounds like a 'good/hip' black position to take)...who turn around and say they love Obama...burrr???